Die „gesunde Kommune“ im Lichte „großer Wenden“ – ein sozialökologisch fundiertes Ziel kommunaler Gesundheitsförderung (KoGeFö)

BACKGROUND: Communities are environments which can protect and promote or, conversely, can endanger the health of their members. Community health promotion takes place in and with a community. Implementing programs and measures in a community mainly focus on individuals and reducing endpoints such as morbidity and mortality, as well as increasing the quality of life. Extending this individual-focused approach, health promotion with a community aims at developing a “healthy community”. OBJECTIVES: What does health promotion with the community aim at? When is a community “healthy”? Beyond a reduction of endpoints such as the incidence and prevalence of nonommunicable diseases, what is the goal of programs, measures, and activities to motivate and support residents to adopt health-promoting behaviors? MATERIALS AND METHODS: Against the backdrop of “grand societal challenges” and drawing on socioecological approaches, the paper discusses what constitutes a “healthy community” and what health promotion with the community aims to achieve. RESULTS: A “healthy community” develops through cooperation of multiple stakeholders from different sectors such as politics, administration, civil society, and residents. The “healthy community” is designed as a fair environment. It opens up possibilities for the individual to act and provides opportunities for them to pursue personally important goals. CONCLUSIONS: The socioecological perspective sharpens the view for the dynamic interaction of environmental and individual factors. Fairness, spaces of opportunity, and realization chances are three criteria that are suitable as indicators for a “healthy community”.